Apart from reviving a once-dead character, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone season 4, which is about to kick off next week, includes a new crossover—Gundams are coming to CoD.
Call of Duty tweeted out a short video to announce the collaboration, consisting of a shadow of a Gundam against a building with neon signs. It’s not much, but it’s still pretty cool for mecha fans out there. Plenty of players have voiced excitement about this new crossover, with a couple even saying that this may even convince them to pick up CoD: “Between this and the Path to Nowhere crossover they did, I’m convinced someone is trying to get me specifically to play CoD,” one player says in a Reddit thread.
I’ll be the first to admit that seeing the mecha suits in Call of Duty is really cool, but there is the issue of the size. The crossover has human-sized Gundams fighting against other operators, and while the official line is that you’re cosplaying as a Gundam and that it’s effectively a suit of armour that lets you “awaken your Newtype powers,” I can’t help but imagine that the mecha is being controlled by tiny people.
One of the key aspects of Gundam is just how intricate the functionality of these mobile suits is, it probably has the most complexity out of all the mecha franchises. And historically, the brand hasn’t done its best when that complexity and the anime from which it stems are ignored. For example, the 6v6 competitive team shooter Gundam Evolution ignored the intricate workings of the mobile suits and the premise of the anime and opted for a straightforward Overwatch approach to things. Needless to say, it didn’t get the best reception and shut down towards the end of last year.
But this Call of Duty crossover isn’t a standalone game, so it doesn’t matter as much that the suits aren’t typically accurate. Honestly, it just seems like fighting other players as a Gundam would be a cool experience.
Along with a themed event, there will be three different Mobile Suit bundles at the beginning of Season 4, which will include either the RX-78-2, XVX-016, or MS-06S Zaku II Gundam operator skin along with three blueprints, a calling card, two loading screens, weapon stickers and charms, a large decal, and the “Newtype Finisher” finishing move.